The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Archive for the ‘culture’


Metal, water, whatever 78

Posted on May 12, 2014 by

For your licence fee today:

The talk of the town 294

Posted on May 05, 2014 by

Readers will know that as a rule we don’t just pinch bits of other peoples’ work wholesale, but in this particular case, given that the entire UK media’s been going on about it misleadingly for a solid week and still shows no sign of stopping, it seemed only fair that everyone should be up to speed on the source.

gqsalmond1

Read the rest of this entry →

Something to believe in 177

Posted on May 05, 2014 by

It’s a Bank Holiday and frankly there’s absolutely bugger-all of any interest in the news today, so I hope you’ll forgive me a personal indulgence, readers. I’ve only used the personal pronoun for a couple of Wings articles out of over 2,300 in the site’s two and a half years of existence, because the independence debate isn’t about me. But a curious piece in today’s Herald by David Torrance merits such a response.

If you don’t see what it’s got to do with that video*, bear with me.

Read the rest of this entry →

Why don’t you go back to Islamia? 253

Posted on May 03, 2014 by

We’ve quite frequently highlighted the ugly, irresponsible tone of the No campaign’s – and especially Labour’s – comments about “foreigners” in the independence debate. And the reason we do is because that sort of language feeds attitudes like these.

joanhenry1

There is, sadly, more where that came from.

Read the rest of this entry →

The belly of the beast 164

Posted on April 29, 2014 by

I had no idea what to expect from the UKIP public meeting in Bath tonight. The city is genteel, wealthy and has been solidly Lib Dem for over 20 years. While there are of course some sketchier areas and it hasn’t been immune to the UK’s recent economic troubles, generally speaking it has little to complain about.

So when UKIP booked the 730 downstairs capacity of the Forum (a rather beautiful old Art Deco former cinema from the 1930s) for a public meeting, I hung onto the hope that there was at least a reasonable chance it’d be half-empty.

ukipf1

No luck there, then.

Read the rest of this entry →

No That’s What I Call Music 56

Posted on April 13, 2014 by

We’re off to watch the Scottish Cup semi-final now, so to keep you all entertained for the next couple of hours here’s a little something we put together at the request of columnist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch, and for anyone who was listening to Radio Scotland’s “Headlines” this morning.

Hopefully we won’t need it ourselves by 3.30pm. #COYR

Anything you can do 102

Posted on April 09, 2014 by

If it’s Wednesday, Labour must have changed their position on their future-devolution proposals again. Following our latest highlighting of the glaring contradictions in the shambolic “Devo Nano” plans, responses have started arriving to your letters.

oscillate

If you’ve been listening closely, you’ll have heard that the position on whether the Scottish Parliament would be able to reduce taxes below the UK level has see-sawed from “No you can’t” (Johann Lamont MSP, 18 March) to “Yes you can” (Richard Baker MSP, 28 March) and back to “No you can’t” again (Tom Clarke MP, 4 April).

Well, guess what?

Read the rest of this entry →

Playing with fire 178

Posted on April 07, 2014 by

Earlier today we highlighted two pieces of disgraceful, mendacious smearing by The Scotsman, in conjunction with an “anonymous” Labour MP. The articles coincided with a wider campaign of demonisation across most of the Scottish and UK media against supporters of independence, backed up by elected Labour representatives on social media in what might easily be seen as a co-ordinated attack.

docherty

The tweets above are from the account of semi-literate Labour councillor for East Kilbride, James Docherty. They follow a week in which the Edinburgh South MP Ian Murray described the placing of one or more small “Yes 2014” stickers on his constituency office windows as an “out of control” escalation of intimidation and Alistair Darling accused some people objecting to a businessman sending a document full of scaremongering lies to 500 employees of his company as “shaming Scotland”.

These hysterical smears would be laughable were it not for the consequences they may yet bring about. We highlight some of those consequences below.

Read the rest of this entry →

From Bath To Scotland 64

Posted on April 06, 2014 by

Just for a change, a wee bit of culture for a Sunday evening.

clinker

Read the rest of this entry →

A passing query 278

Posted on April 04, 2014 by

As far as we’re aware, “the largest arts festival in Europe” (indeed, the largest arts festival anywhere in the world) is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

100mph

Does anyone remember Ian Murray MP being in charge of it?

Read the rest of this entry →

Art imitates life 98

Posted on April 01, 2014 by

This is the Guardian’s elaborate, deliberately-absurd April Fool story:

guardianfool

Ha ha! Good one!

Read the rest of this entry →

A short satire on triangulation 105

Posted on March 21, 2014 by

The last 40 years of UK politics accurately summarised in 30 seconds.

(From episode 3 of Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, still on iPlayer at time of writing.)

  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,968 Posts, 1,249,076 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Confused on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “It is a new global religion being imposed from on high, but psychologically it manifests as neo-puritanism – absolutist, dogmatic,…Aug 21, 00:46
    • Young Lochinvar on Before Action: “Meant to add.. They will make out it is not their job to make your case for you, so devil…Aug 21, 00:31
    • Effijy on Before Action: “Superb!Aug 21, 00:16
    • Campbell Clansman on Before Action: “Sadly, “stall, ignore and dismiss” has worked for years now on this case, continues to work, and as history tells…Aug 21, 00:03
    • Young Lochinvar on Before Action: “Very good Rev. A post service professional career reinforced in me the absolute necessity of pointing out matters of complex…Aug 20, 23:59
    • James on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Try this one. Identifies as Scotch and vomits up unionist *shite* all day, every day on a Scottish independence supporting…Aug 20, 22:33
    • robertkknight on Before Action: “Excellent! Well done Rev! Can you wait until payday for the crowdfunding? Anytime after Thursday next be good 😉Aug 20, 22:32
    • James on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““Pricks”. LOLAug 20, 22:29
    • Angus on Before Action: ““Please consider this as a Letter Before Action”. Can’t wait for the Action to commence. The bastards and bitches at…Aug 20, 22:21
    • Angus on Before Action: ““This is a Letter Before Action” Can’t wait for the Action to start.Aug 20, 22:08
    • Jay on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Confused, thanks for the link, very interesting, confirms some suspicions.Aug 20, 22:00
    • Aidan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “@CC the Carrera 4 was a 996, and the Turbo was a 997, they were always fun but I enjoyed…Aug 20, 21:21
    • Mark Beggan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “For sure Marie. White supremacist colonial baby killer. That’s me! What am I like?!! Too sexy for my political beliefs.…Aug 20, 21:16
    • Andy Wiltshire on Before Action: “That, hopefully, will be something they can’t just dismiss with a one-fingered salute.Aug 20, 21:10
    • James Carr on Before Action: “I’d just like to express my admiration for your tenacity in sticking it to the Police Scotland sleekit, cowardly, probably…Aug 20, 21:10
    • Andrea on Before Action: “I am ready to donate.Aug 20, 21:10
    • Dickie on Before Action: ““…you may wish to seek legal advice.” ???Aug 20, 21:04
    • Mark Beggan on Before Action: “What is a likely outcome of this? I understand these things move in legal steps. Will they just double down…Aug 20, 21:02
    • lollysmum on Before Action: “Excellent Stuart count me in for the fundraiser. Its about time we had another one of your famous fundraisers seeing…Aug 20, 20:59
    • Captain Caveman on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Awesome Aidan, kindred spirit. What gen were the Turbo and Carrera 4? Great cars both, the turbo has unhinged performance…Aug 20, 20:59
    • Knuckle_Heid on Before Action: “Excellent work Rev and I’m sure we are all waiting with bated breath for what the Police come back with.…Aug 20, 20:58
    • IAIN HUGHES on Before Action: “You can get some funds from me! $500 NZD if required.Aug 20, 20:57
    • Al Ba on Before Action: “Hope to see full accountability achieved, and honest justice delivered. How much is left (or has been spent) from the…Aug 20, 20:56
    • Hatey McHateface on Before Action: “Superb! Let battle commence.Aug 20, 20:50
    • 100%Yes on Before Action: “At what point is one of these going to fold and say he/she isn’t worth saving? Thank you for continuing…Aug 20, 20:50
    • Carol Neill on Before Action: “Jack Russell wi a bone , hats offAug 20, 20:49
    • Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “To be fair, the practitioners of the “born in the wrong body” trannytrope have re-discovered the human soul for the…Aug 20, 20:46
    • Calum on Before Action: “Good luck Stuart, these bastards are it.Aug 20, 20:42
    • Jimboagain on Before Action: “16 is the clincherAug 20, 20:41
    • Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Too easy, Wally. Try this one. Self-identifying adult, graduate of compulsory, free primary and secondary schooling, reputed to be the…Aug 20, 20:39
  • A tall tale



↑ Top